Despite significant public debate over which jockey was at fault for the bumping incident at the top of the stretch in the 150th Preakness Stakes at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course last Saturday, and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen publicly accusing stewards of allowing jockeys to “run into each other” with impunity, stewards in Maryland have officially decided to take no action against either Umberto Rispoli or Flavien Prat.
The official statement released Friday afternoon is as follows: “After reviewing the films and speaking with the riders involved, we, the presiding Stewards of the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes, came to the unanimous decision not to take action against Flavien Prat, rider of fourth-place finished Goal Oriented or Umberto Rispoli, rider of first-place finisher Journalism.”
The three presiding stewards are: Adam Campola, Ross Pearce, and Russel Derderian.
The controversy was sparked by an incident between Journalism and Goal Oriented at the top of the stretch: the public alternately blamed Rispoli aboard Journalism for trying to go through a hole that wasn’t there, or Flavien Prat aboard Goal Oriented for turning in and trying to pin Rispoli against the rail.
As for Asmussen, his Preakness contender Clever Again seemed to get the worst of the Preakness incident. The colt slammed into the rail by eventual winner Journalism, checked hard by jockey Jose Ortiz, and eased home to finish last.
Asmussen’s scathing commentary, delivered to Steve Byk’s At The Races radio show, included the remark: “Quit riding him like a rented mule!”
Rispoli responded to the criticism via the Thoroughbred Daily News, saying: “The gap was there and that’s why I took it. I’m not going to drive my horse in a way where I put myself at risk of going down.”
Stewards did hold an inquiry into the stretch run of the race, but it was brief and no changes were made. Following “movies” with both riders on Friday, the first day all three stewards were back in office since the Preakness Stakes, no action was taken again.
Asmussen told Byk earlier this week: “At no point is what actually is happening being addressed (by the stewards). It’s commented on, but it’s never addressed. They’ll pull you up on the carpet over a licensing issue or something like that, but putting people and horses in danger, ‘Oh, I don’t see nothin’.’
“You question any of them, and ‘How dare you show that amount of disrespect?’ How about show a little respect to the horses, the reason we’re all here. Can’t we do better?”
